


hold on

by polkadottedmars



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Hospital, Sick Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 14:57:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5379347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polkadottedmars/pseuds/polkadottedmars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ned finds himself in a familiar setting—a hospital waiting room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hold on

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ndnickerson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ndnickerson/gifts).



> Happy birthday, ndnickerson!

The situation was all too familiar to Ned. It had been years since he’d been able to keep track of how many times he’d been in a hospital waiting room like this one. They’d all blurred together in his mind—the different details about each one forgotten, leaving behind just the memory of pacing down hallways and fidgeting in uncomfortable chairs, waiting and praying for good news.

“I’m going to use the lady’s room,” Ned’s mother murmured from the seat beside him, leaning in to place a kiss on his cheek before getting up. “I’ll be right back. Will you be okay alone?”

His stomach in knots, Ned could only nod his head in response. Carson had stepped out a few minutes earlier for fresh air. Ned could sympathize; with every minute that passed without news, it felt like the air around him was constricting. As much as he wanted to escape the room though, the only place he wanted to be was at her bedside, and until that was an option, he wasn’t moving.

He pulled out his phone and opened up his picture gallery, pulling up the most recent picture he had of her. He had come home the day before from a week-long business trip to find her asleep on the couch, her face buried in one of his shirts. He swiped to an older picture, her blue eyes sparkling as she smiled for the camera. He would give anything to look into those eyes again.

“She’ll be okay.”

Startled out of his reverie, Ned turned to his mother’s recently vacated seat to find Carson sitting there. “I’ve only heard that a couple hundred times or so before,” he muttered. “And usually from you.”

“And it’s always been true,” Carson replied. “How are you doing?”

“I feel like my world is collapsing. It doesn’t get any easier does it?” Ned asked, playing with his wedding ring. “I used to think there was no possible worse feeling every time I waited to hear how badly Nancy was hurt. But everything has changed now.”

“It doesn’t get easier,” his father-in-law confirmed, sighing. “The first time Nancy was in the hospital was about a month after Sarah died. She had an ear infection, and her temperature spiked really high in the middle of the night. I remember sitting there in the waiting room, holding my little girl as she cried for her mother. I felt absolutely useless and like there would never be another awful moment that could top it. But then…” he trailed off.

“-There were broken bones and poisonings and concussions and comas and stabbings,” Ned finished for him, raising an eyebrow. “This is an awful pep talk.”

“Who said anything about a pep talk?” Carson asked wryly. “You did everything right, Ned,” he said, putting a hand on his son-in-law’s shoulder. “You got her here as soon as you realized.”

“I’m going to see if the nurse has any news,” Ned responded, brushing off Carson’s assurances. He couldn’t help but feel like there was something more he could have done. It was his job to protect her, and he had failed.

The nurse at the front desk had no updates for him, and when Ned made his way back to his seat, he found his mother and Carson deep in conversation. Not wanting to join them, he took a sharp turn left and found an empty alcove. He dialed his home number, and waited until the answering machine picked up, comforted briefly by the sound of her happy voice announcing they weren’t home.

“Ned?”

He turned around at his name, and a blur of strawberry blonde launched into his arms.

“Any news?” his wife asked.

Ned shook his head, hugging his wife back before releasing her. “Nothing yet. Did you get everything?”

She tilted her head towards their parents. “I dropped the bag off with them. Dad said you were going to talk to the nurse. I was hoping she told you something.”

Nancy had lasted all of ten minutes sitting in the waiting room after her daughter had been rolled into surgery. The surgeon had warned them how long the procedure would take, and she had known she couldn’t sit that long without doing something—anything. She wasn’t comfortable with waiting. She never had been; her whole life was a series of actions.

Nancy knew Ned was hurting just as much as she was, but he had more practice when it came to this waiting game. Nancy was more familiar with the other side—being the patient causing everyone else to worry.

There had been times when Ned, and even Bess and George, had been the ones to get hurt during a case. It was so much easier then. If someone hurt one of them, she could turn her worry into determination and go after the assailant.

But now…

There was nothing she could do. There was no enemy she could take down. Making sure her daughter had her favorite things next to her when she woke up was the only thing Nancy could think of.

No one had batted an eye when she stood up and announced she needed to go home to gather some of Sarah’s belongings. “She’ll want Butterscotch,” she had told Ned, silently begging him to understand.

He had agreed, only insisting that she not drive herself—something Nancy was grateful for later when James comforted her as she fell apart in Sarah’s bedroom.

“Let’s go sit down,” Ned said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her towards their parents.

“Thanks,” Nancy murmured to her father as he got up so she and Ned could sit together. Carson wrapped his daughter in a hug before handing her the pink and purple polka dotted backpack in his hands.

“When’s the last time you ate, Nancy?” Edith inquired.

“I can’t,” Nancy protested.

“It won’t do her any good if you pass out,” her mother-in-law said gently. “I’ll get the two of you a little something. James, Carson, will you help me?”

Ned waited until their parents disappeared before turning to face his wife. “She’s going to be okay,” he murmured, pulling her close, pushing aside his own worries. “It’s in her blood. She takes after you.”

“I should have known last night. We should’ve brought her in earlier.”

“No,” Ned insisted, turning her face gently to make eye contact. “There was no reason for us to think it was more than her catching your stomach bug.”

Since visiting Bess, who had just been getting over a stomach bug, Nancy had spent the last week sick. That hadn’t been the case yesterday, though, and both she and Ned had thought the bug had passed, thankfully skipping over him and Sarah.

The pitter-patter of little bare feet across the hardwood floor had woken them up just after two am, and Sarah rushed in crying about getting sick in her bed. Ned had taken on the task of cleaning up the mess in Sarah’s bedroom, while Nancy took care of their five-year-old.

Sarah’s temperature had been low-grade at the time, so Nancy had opted to wash her off with a cool bath. It hadn’t helped, so after helping her put on her favorite pony pajama set, Nancy gave her a dose of children’s medicine.

Snuggled in her father’s arms, Sarah had fallen asleep. Between Sarah kicking them in her sleep and their concern for her, Nancy and Ned had given up on trying to get any real sleep themselves. They had left her in their bed when they got up to start their day—Ned heading straight for the coffee pot and Nancy calling out sick.

Nancy had checked in on Sarah periodically, testing her temperature against the back of her hand. While it wasn’t going down, it also wasn’t going up, and Nancy hadn’t been too worried—at least not until Ned had gone upstairs to check on Sarah before he left for work. Her fever had spiked dangerously since the last time Nancy checked.

“I had a reason,” Nancy said quietly. “I think I’m pregnant.”

“What?” Ned asked.

Nancy repeated herself. “I’m late and with all of the throwing up…” she trailed off. “I was planning on buying a test today, but when Sarah started to complain about her stomach, I figured it wasn’t morning sickness after all. I didn’t even consider any other options.”

They had only recently started trying to get pregnant again, Nancy having stopped taking her pill a few months earlier.

“Oh, Nan—“

“—Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson?” A petite nurse interrupted them. “The surgeon will be out in a minute to talk to you. I just wanted to let you know the surgery is finished.”

“How is she?” Nancy asked, afraid of what the nurse’s lack of details meant.

“I don’t have any other information. I’m sorry,” the nurse apologized.

Nancy and Ned thanked her, and she walked away. They sat in silence, a tight grip on each other’s hand, as they waited for the surgeon to come out.

///

_There was a complication._

“Nancy? Where’s Ned?”

Edith’s alarmed voice broke through the loop of the surgeon’s words replaying through Nancy’s mind. “He’s with Sarah,” she answered softly. “They won’t let me in until I get checked out to make sure I’m not sick.”

“How is she?” Carson asked, taking the seat next to his daughter and enveloping her in a hug.

“She had an allergic reaction to the anesthesia,” Nancy said, wiping her falling tears. “The surgeon said she’s okay and that it was only a mild reaction. But until I see her..." she trailed off, releasing a sob. “I need to be in there.”

"How long ago did they tell you?" her father-in-law asked. "They should have looked at you immediately instead of leaving you here to wait."

"I don't know," Nancy said honestly. It had felt like hours, but she knew the three of them couldn't have been gone that long. Even if they had wanted to give her and Ned some time alone, there was no they would have chanced missing an update on their granddaughter.

"This isn’t acceptable," James seethed. "I'm going to talk to someone."

His tone startled Nancy. As long as she had known him, she had never seen her father-in-law angry. James Nickerson was easy-going by default and always approached situations calmly.

Carson stood up and joined him. "Let’s go see what we can do.”

“Here,” Edith said, handing Nancy a wrapped sandwich. “You need to keep your strength up. At least a couple bites, please.”

“Roast beef?” Nancy questioned. It had been her biggest craving when pregnant with Sarah. “You know?”

Edith shrugged. “I was hoping. So I’m right, then?”

“Possibly. I’ve thought so for a couple days.” Nancy sighed. “I almost hope I’m not,” she said quietly. “Maybe I won’t feel so bad.”

“What do you have to feel bad about?” Edith questioned.

“Being a bad mother,” Nancy answered her mother-in-law. “If I’m pregnant, I should’ve known for sure instead of accepting my morning sickness and Sarah’s appendix as a stomach bug,”

“Don’t be silly,” Edith chastised her lightly. “You’re forgetting I saw you the other day. I have to admit, as soon as you called about being sick, my mind did go to another grandbaby. But you looked so awful… I thought I was wrong.”

“So what made you change your mind?” Nancy asked. “If it’s because of this,” she said, waving one hand around. “—then you’re kind of proving my point.”

“You’re not the only one in the family who can do a little detective work,” Edith said. She smiled as she tilted her head toward Nancy’s stomach. “Your hand seemed to be glued there for most of the day.”

“Oh,” Nancy said, blushing. “I didn’t even realize.”

“Now eat,” Edith instructed. “James will probably have two-thirds of the entire hospital staff descending on you any minute.”

“I’ve never seen him like that.” Nancy offered her mother-in-law a weak smile. “Sarah’s lucky to have the both of you.”

“And even luckier to have you.” Edith wrapped an arm around her comfortingly. “Don’t forget that.”

“Thank you.” Nancy relaxed into the mother’s embrace, wishing she could offer the same comfort to her daughter.


End file.
